New Forms & Lit Bounds
English 317 - Fall 2004
(CRN13591 American Literature 1880-1940)
MWF 9:15
Prof. Kenneth Sherwood
Sherwood@iup.edu
Revolution of Language - Eugene Jolas
(1) An attitude which regards modern language as inadequate for the
expression of the changing background of the world, and which posits the
necessity of a radical revision of its communicative and symbolic
functions.
(2) It regards both the individual creator and the collective folk speech
as mediumistic instruments for bring about the change.
(3) It envisages creative language as a pre-rational process.
In Revolution of the Word, ed. Jerome Rothenberg (148-149)
Some of the most “edgy” books ever published were written by Americans between the
two world wars. This course will give students the opportunity to explore the American
Avant-Garde (1915-1945), by reading the work of a small group of innovative writers
who sometimes playfully peer over the edges of literature and other times crash
violently into its boundaries--conventions and habits having to do with form, genre,
language, and subjects. Over the course of the semester, we will read, think, discuss,
and write our ways towards the edges explored by such writers as Gertrude Stein, Mina
Loy, Louis Zukofsky, and William Carlos Williams. Because so many modernist writers
wanted to renew or even revolutionize the relationship between “word” and “world,” I
will encourage students to extend the limits of their own writing practices in emulation
of the innovative writers studied.
Texts (available at the HUB bookstore):
The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams: 1909-1939, Vol. 1
Paterson, William Carlos Williams
The Lost Lunar Baedeker: Poems of Mina Loy
Gertrude Stein: Writings 1903-1932
“A” by Louis Zukofsky
Supplemental Reading and Audio
Accessed through course webpage and IUP electronic reserve.
Assignments
1. Participation (3x10%): Reading, discussion, weekly "blog". I consider a semester-long
dialogue the ideal class. Please read actively, using book margins or post-its to
record your reactions. Then you will be able to contribute to discussion with
comments and informed questions. You may use the blog as a reading log, to
summarize a week's discussion, or to begin developing your own critical/creative
responses to modern texts. Your blogs will be linked from the class webpage, so
your peers can access them, and I will sometimes feed your posts into an ongoing
discussion. Feel free to bring in posts from your blog and other relevant resources to
share with the class.
2. Minor Writing Assignments (4x10%): Close reading 1-2pp. and three short
experiments (e.g. annotation, imitation, mock translation, prose meditation, genre
bender, manifesto, fictive interview). Consider these critical/creative exercises as
modernist means for becoming intimate with the texts we read. Deadlines on the
calendar indicate the last possible date for submitting an experiment. As I hope they
will contribute to our ongoing discussion, please compose them in the midst of
present reading and bring copies to class.
3. Major Essay (25%): Researched analysis of a small selection of texts from a single
author; or, approved alternative project (proposal for students choosing this option
is due Nov. 1st). I welcome students interested in exploring alternatives to standard
academic prose to design alternative projects. The experiments and models in the
"Anthology of Critical Forms" should help suggest new approaches to the genre of
critical writing. The best projects will develop an innovative format that engages
thoughtfully with work by one of the four studied authors, reflecting an
appreciation of modernist practices.
4. Exam (5%)
1
2
3
4
5
Dates
AUG 30
SEPT 1
3
6 Labor Day
8
10
13
15
17 Prof Conf
20
22
24
27
29
OCT 1
6
4
6
8
7
11
13
15
8
18 Break
20
22
9 25
27
29
10 NOV 1
3
5
11 8
10
Introduction
{Modernism I*}
{A Modernist Poetry Sampler*}
""
""
====={Modernism II*}=====
Williams
{A Modernist Poetry Sampler*}
Sour Grapes
Spring and All
[Choose poems]
Descent of Winter
[Prep. Close Rd]
====="Author's Introduction [to The Wedge]"*;
Zukofsky, "The Work of WCW" *======
[Close Rd Due] Close Readings: Student-Selected Shortsi
""
""
(sequence): Della Primavera 329-349
Loy
Poems 1914-1920: (Parturition, Virgin…, Effectual…,
Human…, Lions'…, Aphorisms on Futurism,
Feminist Manifesto)
Songs to Joannes, Auto-Facial; {Anth. of Crit. Forms}*
Poems 1919-1930: (Mexican…, Poe, Apology…,
Brancusi's…, Lunar Baedeker, Crab Angel…,
Gertrude Stein, Widow's…,
[Exper. #1 Due] Poems 1942-1949: (On Third…, Idiot Child…,
Ephemerid, Photo…, Time-Bomb, Omen…,
Letters…, Hot Cross Bum, An Aged Woman Modern
Poetry
Stein
From Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (Chap 3, 5),
From Three Lives:(Melanctha);
Portraits (Matisse, Picasso, Flirting at the Bon
Marche, Cezanne, Life of Juan Gris, Virgil
Thompson, Picasso If I told Him); Williams,
"The Work of Gertrude Stein"*
A Movie; Idem the Same-Sherwood Anderson,
Composition as Explanation
====
Accents in Alsace, A Movie, An Instant Answer
Tender Buttons
""
Patriarchal Poetry
""
[Alt. Prop. Due] Lifting Belly
""
Dramatic Readings: Four Saints in Three Acts
Zukofsky
"A" 1-6; "An Objective"*
"A" 7; "A Statement for Poetry"*
12
12 15
17
19
22
24 Thanks.
26 Recess
13 29
DEC 1
3
14 6
[Exper. #3 Due]
Williams Reprise
8
10
13
Conclusions
Exam
[ ]=Assignments { }=Prof.'s assemblage
From "A"-8 (43-48, 103-105); "Found Objects"*
"A"-9
"A"-11
From "A"-12 (126-147)
"A"-15, 16, 17
==== Bernstein, "Thought's Measure"*====
=========
From "A"-22 and 23 (508-512, 532—540, 560-63)
Dramatic Readings: Selections "A"-24
{Paterson Precursors*}, Paterson IPaterson II, III
Paterson IV, V
*=Electronic Reserve Title=Criticism/Poetics
The Young Housewife 57, Pastoral 70, Tract 72, Dawn 85, Good Night 85, Danse Russe 86, Portrait 87,
Spring Strains 97, To a Solitary Disciple 104, Portrait of a Lady 129, My Luv 240, Hermaphrodidic
Telephones 251, The Attic Which is Desire 325, Botticellian Trees 348, Readie Pome 356, To a Poor Old
Woman 383, Proletarian Portrait 384, The Poor 452, Between Walls 453
i
Electronic Reserve
Sherwood. Modernism I: Rothenberg, Jerome. "Counter Poetics" and "Chronology," Revolution of
the Word: A New Gathering of Avant Garde Poetry: 1914-1945.. Boston: Exact Change, [1974]. xvxxiii, Pound, Ezra. "Vortex.Pound" 80-81; Jolas, Eugene"Proclamation" 150; "William Carlos Williams"
109-110; "Mina Loy" 57; "Gertrude Stein" 89-90; "Louis Zukofsky," 239-240.)
Sherwood. A Modernist Poetry Sampler: Loy: Film-face 125, Moreover, the Moon 146; Stein:
Susie Asado 362, Precisosilla 386, Yet Dish 363-72; Zukofsky: Ferry 27, Crickets 55, To My Wash
Stand 59-60, When the Crickets 88, The Lines 97, Peri Poeitikes 216-217 All: The Collected Short
Poems; Williams: A Love Song: First Version 53 / 107; Last Words (first version) 253 / 464;
Flowers by the Sea 352 / 378; The Locust Tree in Flower 366 / 379; Young Woman at a Window
373/373
Modernism II: Baym, et al. "American Literature Between the Wars," Norton Anthology of American
Literature. 1071-1086.*; Lawall, et al. "Masterpieces of the Twentieth Century: Varieties of
Modernism," Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. 1337-48.*; Giorcelli, Cristina. "Foreword,"
The Idea and the Thing in Modernist American Poetry.Cristina Giorcelli, ed. Palermo: Ila Palma,
2001. 5-10.*; Bernstein, "The Academy in Peril"* CD 244-51
Williams, "Author's Introduction [to The Wedge]" Collected Poems, vol. II. 53-55*
Zukofsky, "The Work of William Carlos Williams" from "American Poetry 1920-1930,"
Prepositions: The Collected Critical Essays of Louis Zukofsky. [Expanded Edition]
Berkeley: U California P, 1981. 148-151.*
Sherwood. Anthology of Critical Forms: Section "Reading Stein" from Language Book. Bruce
Andrews and Charles Bernstein, eds. Carbondale: Southern Illinois U P, 1984. 195-207.*; Silliman,
"For Language" LB 16*; Grenier, "Hedge-Crickets Sing" LB 19-20*; Benedetti, "The Poem Beginning
What Is" LB 106.*; Section "Louis Zukofsky" from LB 290-295.*; Gizzi, "Correspondences of the Book"
A Poetics of Criticism. Juliana Spahr, et al, eds. Buffalo: Leave Books, 1994. 179-86*; Spahr, from "A,B,
C: Reading Against" APC 287-92*; DuPlessis, "Pater-Daughter: Male Modernists and Female
Readers," The Pink Guitar: Writing as Feminist Practice. NY: Routledge, 1990. 41-67.
Williams, "The Work of Gertrude Stein" Selected Essays 113-120*
Zukofsky, "An Objective," "A Statement for Poetry," "Found Objects" Prep.12-23, 168*
Bernstein, "Thought's Measure; 1. Writing (as) (and) Thinking," Content's Dream:
Essays 1975-1984. Los Angeles: Sun and Moon, 1986. 61-72.*
Sherwood. Paterson Precursors: Paterson 263; Paterson Episode #17 – 439; Paterson
The Falls CPv.II.57;